It is said the pen is mightier than the sword – that depends on the foe I suppose – but reading Mona Chollet’s ‘In Defence of Witches’ has topped up the armoury! Each book I consume on my self directed FUCKTHEPATRIARCHY studies puts another nice neat row of bullets on my shelf. Little nuggets of hard truth to lob at 6 thousand years of patriarchal ignorance (give or take a millennia). 

“Knowledge is power and ignorance bliss” – spoken by Sir Frances Bacon who also wrote “The Masculine Birth of Time or The Great Instauration of the Dominion of Man Over the Universe”  Whoa dude ‘dominion of man over the universe’ Uh ego much? 

I’m calling bullshit on the blissfully ignorant part. We need to fill the gaping holes of our historic knowledge and reclaim some POWER – yup it’s SHAZAM time. 

  • Whenever you hear ‘WITCHES were burned at the stake’ replace with ‘WOMEN were burned at the stake – that is likely the most important paradigm shift we all need to make (although many were hanged first and then burnt or tortured to death but why split hairs).
  • List of offences that one could be accused of WITCHcraft:
    ★ be independent
    ★ be childless
    ★ be elderly
    ★ have some knowledge about pretty much anything
    ★ seems that breathing was also a bit of a prerequisite for torture – wow the inquisition-     tough crowd…
  • 20% of those accused of witchcraft were men – generally due to an association with one of the ‘REAL’ witches – nothing like encouraging men to narc out their women folk – pain of the above mentioned hanging, burning, and torture really drove a big old wedge between 2 distinct members of the same species

Mona Chollet covers a LOT of ground in this book – we’ve got the actual ‘witch hunts’ which spanned centuries, and was worse than you thought. But the knock on effect is what is so pervasive; lack of autonomy of our own bodies (while I’m at it the US Supreme Court can go fuck themselves), ageism – we are talking women being concerned about being over-the-hill in their 30s… guys get a FREE SQUARE, and don’t get me started on the whole grey hair thing. The medical profession also has a lot to answer for. Hands up – or more likely ‘legs up’ if you have had a less than satisfactory experience with a male doctor – nothing like being in the stirrups and having a bunch of uninvited interns come along to take a boo! I am likely not the only one, when faced with a bit of a medical mystery, was told it is all ‘in my head’ and that I should see a psychiatrist…  

In Defence of Witches shares Starhawk’s explanation of the HAG “the wise woman who sat on the hedge – the boundary between the village and the wild, the human world and the spirit world”. I read that and thought – yup I can own a piece of that – I got a little woo woo in me. Let your inner HAG out and extend a hand to your inner CHILD, they will become fast friends and can even share the same ‘tickle trunk’. 

Setting good boundaries – yes yes we hear so much about that, these days. BOUNDARIES what a concept – some people (generally of the 3 legged variety) have spent millennia putting up walls – big FUCK OFF shiny ones – this would in fact be the impenetrable walls of the PATRIARCHY. Gotcha! It’s totally penetrable – you just need the right ordnance.

Let’s inventory our own personal armouries and see where we land. Where, what and how do we ‘arm ourselves’?  Although the best defence is a good offence, (or is it the other way around…) one needs to be realistic about that. I am a practical person – a realistic optimist – an optimistic nihilist – I will need a new label maker soon… Expecting a well organized offence from those who have spent lifetime(s) crouched in a defensive posture is pure cockswaddle. 

Let me introduce you to the HEDGEROW – a delightful border you can grow yourself – keeps out the riffraff but lets in the light and small creatures. I like HEDGEROWs in both the physical and metaphysical variety. A line of closely spaced shrubs, sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier. The fickle balance of light and dark, a variety of climate conditions and moisture levels are required to support wildLIFE, provide shelter, privacy, pest control and conserve energy. Yes there will be some TRAINING – or more aptly put deprogramming for the metaphysical type. 

Many of us have some sort of wall subconsciously erected in our youth to keep us safe – manifesting in ways that do not serve us.  I know I do, but I’m slowly replacing that albatross of a structure with my own personal hedgerow – one revelation at a time. I have a European background (English, Lithuanian, other odds and sods) which I have limited knowledge of, but when I look through what is available of my family tree I see ‘workhouse’ and ‘domestic’ mentioned on more than one occasion – we were not ‘to the manor born’. If you know anything of the hardship of the poor in Victorian England you would be more surprised that anyone survived at all, much less had a nurtured childhood with a good foundation of critical thinking. Knowing this makes me much more forgiving of all the women in my family that came before me and quite frankly were not what is known as ’emotionally available’ – the deck was stacked against them – I get it. It’s not about what’s wrong with us, more about what happened to us, en masse – for what seems like forever. So your first line of defence is to cut yourself some slack and play this song! (Little Jackie ‘Not a Nice Girl’)

‘Not a Nice Girl’ click here and buy it for yourself – artists gotta eat!

The PATRIARCHY style barrier is immense and does not appear to have the voluntary capacity to let in the light – shame really – their loss. Too bad the direct and collateral damage of willful ignorance has been OUR loss… This barrier took yonks to grow, and grow it did, big strong and dumb as a sack of hair – creating boundaries where none should be. Oh DIVISION – you are such a DINK and I don’t care to play with you anymore. This includes womenfolk, we are PRODUCTS of the patriarchy (like it or not) – united we really do stand! There are lots of people I don’t like – and likely one or two that don’t like me (I get it – I’ve met me…) but that doesn’t mean we need to tear each other down – there is already a system in place that has been getting all the first place medals in that department.

But take heart – as I trundle along the top of my personal HEDGEROW I spy breaks in the defence of the PATRIARCHAL wall – fissures created when women heave a collective sigh of ‘oh piss off already!’ I’m not sure what FEMINIST WAVE we are currently riding, but like the waves of the ocean they are powered by a force larger than myself. I’ll work on my hedgerow – one pointy stick at a time…  

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